HAUPI' : DIFFICULT PASSAGES IN THE SONG OF SONGS. 5 I
Difficult Passages in the Song of Songs.
PROFESSOR PAUL HAUPT, PH.D.
JOH!IS HOPKINS ll!IIVBRSITY.
N my lecture on the Book of Ecclesiastes, published in the Orim I lal Studies read before the Oriental Club of Philadelphia,! I quoted Renan's 1 remark that Ecclesiastes, as well as the Song of Solomon, represented a few profane pages which, by some accident, had found their way into 'that strange and admirable volume termed the Bible'; the Jewish doctors understood neither the one nor the other, otherwise they would not have admitted such compositions to the collection of sacred writings ; it was their stupidity that enabled them to make out of a dialogue of lovers a book of edification, and out of a sceptical book a treatise of sacred philosophy ; Solomon's Song and Ecclesiastes were just like a love-ditty or a little essay of Voltaire which had gone astray among the folios of a theological library. I added at that time that I could not agree with the famous French critic in this respect : I believed the theological contemporaries of Ecclesiastes were by no means too stupid to grasp the import of his anti-Biblical statements, but as they were unable to suppress the book, they endeavored to darken its real meaning, for dogmatic purposes, saying as Georg Hoffmann put it in his translation of the Book of Job,3 Let us save the attractive book for the Congregation, but we will pour some water into the author's strong wine. Not satisfied with the obscuration of the original book, the theological revisers tried to cut up and dislocate the text as much as possible, destroying the original order and logical sequence, so that in the present form of the book there is no proper arrangement, no logical connection between the individual verses : it seems like a conglom eration of disjt:ela mtmbra. Professor Bickell, of Vienna, tried to show, in 1884,4 that the con fusion was merely due to a mistake of a bookbinder who misplaced the quires of the manuscript ; but the disarrangement was not acci dental, but intentional. I appended a translation of the closing
/
o1git1zed by Goog le JOURNAL OF BIBUCAL LITERA11JRE. m:ti\'n of Ecclesiastes restored in its original order and freed from tht' ~lusses that have clustered about it.5 ln the Song of Songs there are no theological interpolations itl~l'rted for the purpose of weakening the pessimistic arguments of the author, such as we find in Job and in Ecclesiastes, and occa sionally in Proverbs, as I pointed out at the meeting of this Society in Philadelphia, on Dec. 28, 1900; 8 the Song of Songs was not suffi ciently pessimistic to require this antidotal treatment; in fact, it is so decidedly optimistic that this glaring optimism had to be toned down a little, and for this reason the exuberant praise of sensual love was given an allegorical interpretation. We have undoubtedly a good deal of allegorical and symbolical imagery in the erotic phraseology of the Song of Songs : ~.g. the virgin charms of the maidens are called their vineyards; the body of the bride is styled a mountain of sweetness and a hillock of fragrance ; 7 the bridal bed is termed a dining-couch, and the bride groom is invited to lie down at the feast; It the bridal chamber is called a tavern~ the sign of which is Love, and they intoxicate 8 them selves with love ; the kisses and caresses of the bridegroom are symbolized by raisin-cakes and apples with which he refreshes the bride llll_ but this allegorical imagery all refers to sensual Jove. The bride is not a personification of Wisdom which Solomon is trying to win ; nor do Solomon and ·the Shulamite represent Christ and the Church, or the love of Yahweh to His people; still Jess can we adopt the traditional Jewish view which considers the Song of Songs to be an allegorical sketch of the entire history of Israel from the Exodus to the coming of the Messiah. The Song of Songs is neither allegorical, nor typical, nor dramatic ; 9 indeed, it is not the work of one poet but a collection of popular love-songs, probably made in the neighborhood of Damascus,.18 after the beginning of the Seleu cidan era (3 12 B.c.) ; and these songs are not all complete, neither are they given in their proper order. Several explanatory glosses, variants, and iilustrative quotations appear in an entirely different context. For instance, the stanza in 21
0 maidens, lo, I beseech you, by the gazelles and the hinds of the fields, That ye stir not nor startle our loving before our fill we have drunken. appears again in 35 and in 8\ where it is entirely out of place. These lines form the conclusion of the song addressed by the bride to the
o1git1zed by Goog le HAUPT : DIFFICULT PASSAGES IN THE SONG OF SONGS. 53
bridegroom on the morrow after marriage. On the day following the wedding the newly married couple awake as King and Queen ; they receive their 'vizier,' the best man, 10 at an early hour, but on the subsequent six days of the 'King's Week' 11 the festivities do not begin before noon. The bride beseeches the female guests not to disturb their connubial bliss until it be ended with ample satiety, as she is just as shy as the gazelles and the hinds of the fields. She bids the bridegroom to enjoy her charms until there arises the breeze (of the morning) 12 and the shadows (of the night) 12 are departing. He is to leap u on the malobalkron mountains 7 like a gazelle or a young hart. Malobalkron (or malabalkron) is a most precious aromatic men tioned by Horace and by Pliny, probably the oil (ol~um malobatkri 23 11 num) of cinnamon qi~~R; cf. 4H Exod. 30 Prov. 7 ), obtained from the bark (cortex malabalkn') and leaves of the cinnamon tree ( Cinnamomum Tamala, Nees) cultivated on the Malabar coast bordering on the Arabian Sea, not the cinnamomum Cqlanicum, or the cinnamomum cassia (Chinese cinnamon, cf. n,,'lti' Ps. 45u), or the cassia lign~a or wild cassia. According to Pliny, malabalhron was found also in Syria (Plin. xii. 129: dal d ma/abalhron S;-n"a). In xxiii. g8 Pliny states that a leaf of malabalhr01t put under the tongue sweetens the breath, and that it is used also for perfuming articles of dress (oris d ha/ilus mavitalem commmdallingua~ subdi tumfolium, siculd z•utium odor~m intcrpositum). Horace ( Carm., ii: 7'') addresses his friend and comrade Pompeius Varus: 0 Pom peius with whom I often shortened the dragging day with wine, the hair perfumed with Syrian maloballtron,
Pompd m~orum prim~ so
Digitized by Goog ie 54 JOURNAL OF BIBUCAL UTERATURE.
8 Cant. 2 17 reappears, with slight variations, in 4 , where the bride- groom says: Till the breeze (of the morning) 11 arises, and the shadows are taking their ftight, I will go to the mountain of myrrh and to the hillock of incense; 7 and at the end of the book we find the misplaced variant, Bolt,13 my darling, like a gazelle or a young hart on the mountains of spices.7 This variant Mj~ 'bolt' explains the imperative ::0 in the 17 original passage 2 , which has never been understood heretofore. Siegfried translates, Turn to making thyself like a gazelle, begin to make thyself like a gazelle. According to Budde ::0 ' turn ' means here 'come here'; but the verb ~::lO is used in I S. I611 in the sense 'to be around the table,' LXX KaTaKA.t6wfU11, Vulgate discum 1 bemus, and this has an erotic meaning just as a((ubare or accumbere. • In I 12 we read ,~ fZi~ ~~ I i:llQO~ 1':10:-t'!t' ,~ 'as long as the King was in his accubation,' enjoying his feast in a recumbent posture, 'my spikenard u exhaled its fragrance,' i.e., my darling seemed to me the sweetest thing on earth.33 We find this erotic use of :l;)~ 'accubation' or 'dining-couch' in the Talmud: in Sltabb., fol. 63'" we read : .,~,M C~ ,~:"T y~ ~'lt'~M C':l'lt',.,~ ''lt''M ~:-t~ ~., .,t:M r~~~ :-t':l~~~ :'!Tl'M'It' Zi£l~ ,M :-t':l'~~ Zi£l~ c,~:-t J;I,~C :"T~~ ,.,;o':! ,M ~,to .,:;M~ .,¥i' ::lO~~ ,M ~m ~C~~ ~':I,.,M r~~~ ,M ~,) lim':! f';l~, ~I?~ ~., .,t:M ~., .,~M~, i.e., Rabbi Jehudah said, The men of Jerusalem were very frivolous. A man would say to his friend, e.g., What did you have for supper last night? 18 well-worked bread or unworked 17 bread? Had you Gordelian wine or Khardelian wine? Was your couch spacious or short? Had you good or bad company? Rabbi Khisda said, All this refers to illicit intercourse. Unworked bread, or bread that has not been kneaded, refers to a virgin, while the question, Had you (white) Gordelian wine or (red) Khardelian wine? means, Was she blonde or brunette? A most interesting misplaced illustrative quotation 18 is found in Cant. 8.111. The Authorized Version translates, I raised thee up under the apple tree, there thy mother brought thee forth, there she brought thee forth that bare thee. But TZi.,.,,~ must be translated as future. The passage should be rendered, I will break in on thee ' under the apple ' where she who bore thee conceived, the preceding ' where thy mother conceived thee ' being an explanatory gloss. This seems to be a marginal quotation from some poem in which a revengeful enemy threatens to break in on the bride ' under the
o1git1zed by Goog le HAUPT: DIFFICULT PASSAGES IN THE SONG OF SONGS. 55 apple,' iL. in the bridal chamber, under the caresses of the bride groom, so that she will not be as happy as her mother who conceived her • under the apple,' 19 sterility being considered the greatest curse in Oriental countries. We might say, with Schiller, at the end of the fourth act of the Rauber, ldz wiU dich aus dem Belle urren wenn du in dtn Anlltn der Wollustliegsi.!IJ The apple is an erotic symbol. According to tradition the fruit which Eve gave to Adam, in the legend of the Fall of Man (i.e., the first cohabitation),21 was an apple. 'He refreshed me with cates made of raisins and with apples appeased all my cravings ' in Cant. 25 means, therefore, he kissed and caressed me.
I now proceed to give a metrical translation of one of the songs in the first two chapters, restoring the original sequence and eliminat ing the marginal glosses which have crept into the text. This song consists of ten stanzas, each stanza being composed of two c~"'lt'C or double-lines, and each "'lt'C 22 of two hemistichs; each hemistich has three beats. The rhythm of my translation has been very much improved in a number of passages by the distinguished co-editor of the Polychrome Bible, Horace Howard Furness.
THE BRIDE ADDRESSING THE HRIOEGROO~I 0~ THE MORROW AFTER MARRIAGE.
1 16 Behold thou art fair, my own darling, aye, sweet;" our bed will be green.:za 17 Of our home all the rafters are cedarn, and (its walls) are all paneled w:th cypress.tt
! 3 As the apple amid trees of the forest, so amid youths is my sweeting. I delight to dwell un 4 To the tavern where wine~ flows he brought me, 'Love ' was the sign hanging out there. 5 He refreshed me with cates made of raisins and with apples appeased all my cravings.t6 /J 6 On his left arm my head was reclining, while around me his right arm was clinging. 1 12 As long as the King 28 stayed there feasting,n my spikenard 1& its scent was exhaling: 16 "'aye ! 5 11 for I am sick with love 27 DigitiZed by Goog e JOURNAL OF BWUCAL LITERAlURE. 13 My sachet of myrrh., was my darling, scenting my breasts with its perfume.., 14 My darling was a cluster of henna 11 (blooming) in En-gedi's gardens_ll 2 With kisses of thy mouth do thou kiss me, for thy love than wine is far sweeter. 3 '~'Thy name is thrice-clarified perfume; II and therefore all maidens do love thee.[3] 4 Take me with thee! Come, let us hasten I to thy chamber, 0 King,11 do thou lead me I There let us rejoice and make merry, and be drunken, not with wine, but with loving.[] I 16 My darling is mine, and his am I, who feeds on the dark purple lilies14 17 Till the breeze (of the morning) arises, and the shadows are taking their flight.J2 Do thou spring to the feast,86 0 my darling, like a gazelle or a young hart be thou! - • (To the feast) on the mountains of myrrh, (to the feast) on the hillocks of incense.• 7 0 maidens, ( lo, I beseech you, by the gazelles and the hinds of the fields, That ye stir not nor startle our loving 'I befure our fill we have drunken. The Hebrew text of these stanzas must be restored as follows: : ~"V'I 1;VU1 • Cl"tWZJK ..,., ~I)· ,~., 1 16 : C'M1"'Q 1;1Q"!'T'' &;,:=1 CTIK WQ M,"'1t., 17 3 '1' with regard to fragrance thy perfumes are sweet 4 a rightly do they love thee t 17 ' on the mountains of malabathron. ~ f 6 Till the breeze (of the morning) arises, and the shadows are taking their flight, I will go to the mountain of myrrh and to the hillock of incense.- 8 14 Bolt,11 my darling, like a gazelle or like a young hart on the mountains of spices. t 7 ' of Jerusalem 8 s•" I will break in OD thee under the apple (wlrtrt t!ty motlttr (01fCtWtd tlttt) where she who bore thee conceived.'T 16 • '\M Digitized by Goog le HAUPT : DIFFICULT PASSAGES IN THE SONG OF SONGS. 57 z:r;!).., r::: ...,"!j.:) "'Ur:"l "XP::: m~ ll 3 : •:Drtt p1M ,..,m, •n:::l:"' 'l'M!J)" ,m : ;,!)..,. ,-',p ,",.,., f":"' M":::-',at 'llf'!).., 4 : fJ O'm~ 'l~Tl n~K;il'l~ s : •;p:::pn ~., "lt'lM'=' nnn ,'='aecl' 6 ;,m rru "'"""1l ,~!;)~::: 1'='C.~ "'1%7 1 12 : r"· ""lW r::: '".....,., .,~., .,i-1¥ 13 : -.,; f'l' ·~-,:::::: '".....,., .,~., '='~· 14 : rc .,..,.., o•:::11Q ":l TID M1i'"'t'l~ •;pWj 2 a(&] ~jK M1~.,p ~P 1~V1 pjV'l i~Vl 'Y 3 T),M ,.,C-'1 'llf'::l.':;! ~~ I ,..,MK 'l:;)1!'9 4 : (] ~ .,.,., ;,~ 1::: :"l~l'l, m·ll : O'JV11~::1 :"llt\'1 ,., 'lK1 ..,.....,, I 16 :::c o-'=''='x.-~ ,c;, o,•;, miD"'t' ,u 17 z:r&,oac., .,ID!1':! 1M -~ .,, 1'='":'1~'1 ;,;1:::'=';, nP:::l .,rn .,~., ...,., .,p • :T'I'v.'1 ,,.,~.:::.,. ,,.:::J::: 'n1l::: O:;)nat •nu:::m 7 : ~ "'1%7 ;,:::.'11t-rnac " ,.,.,1un oat, ,-,n-oac I will append here vv.8 and 1 of the eighth chapter containing the most beautiful lines of the Song of Songs from a non-Oriental point of view. These two verses must be preceded by the beginning of the ,:::.jlC o.-,woc a t 4 •;at :"l!::"lat n'='1n ":l fJ I 6 -,n::: ...,., '='u • 1 17 o•:::'lli:) Tl~Vl m., Y t 3 o•.,.,x.-~ ,c;, o1•,, milT "'1%7 • 6 : :'lli:::'=';, np~• .,., .,~., "\,-',at ..,_,.,. : ~l'::: .-,;, .,P O...,.M:"l .,ID!1':! ,at ·~ ,.,":'TQ11 .,, ~ 8 14 ,.,.,.,P man.., nnn " 8 s• (it* ;n'='~n :"lmV1) ; ,,.,.,. m~n :"!QV1 o1git1zed by Goog le JOURNAL OF BIBUCAL LrTERA'IURE. 1 third chapter, 3 ....,, while the last two hemistichs of 3• represent a misplaced variant to 8'. Verses is a scribal expansion derived from 21 ; it is out of place in the third chapter ; nor does it suit the con text in 8'; cf. above, p. 52. 7 11 The second half of the third chapter, 3 - , contains the description of the solemn procession (Arab. el-fdn·d~) of the bride from her native village to the village of the bridegroom; cf. Wetzstein's re marks on p. 1 70 of Delitzsch's Commentary and Gustaf H. Dalman, Palaslinischer Diwa11 (Leipzig, 1901), pp. 187. 188. 191. 193· For J'lt'' n,.,~~n:l (not :l !) 'with pillars of smoke,' see Dillmann-Ryssel 21 on Exod. 13 • Before 32 we must supply, I said to myself. The preceding third hemistich of 3', ,~nat~ at':!, ,~n'lt'p:l, is an erroneous repeti tion of the last hemistich of the following verse (gloss•) which repre sents a scribal expansion derived from 5tW· On the other hand, 33 7 has been inserted, with some tertiary additions, in 5 • c~~~:-1 is an incorrect explanatory gloss : the men going about the city at night were not all watchmen. The Masoretic pointing C~j?1~ is incorrect ; it should be C~f?'~ =Assyr. sdqdni and suqdti; stiqam· means 'narrow streets' ( cf. Heb. p~:~t:-1), while r~b(li (= n,:Yn) denotes 'wide streets' (suqdli rapMti) ; cf. Delitzsch, H W, pp. 492" and 601'; see also critical notes on Ezekiel, in the Polychrome Bible, p. 64, I. 33· The 'It' -, before ~nat:~t~ in v! is correct (contrast Budde ad loc.) ; it corresponds to the Arabic 4dttd ltjd = illd f!O; cf. Wright de Goeje, vol. ii, p. 339, C; p. 13, D (~.g. Before I was aware of anything, ei-Aswad had entered the room, Arab. fa-md la'drlu bi iafi" 4dlld ltjd 'I·Asf!adu qad daxa/a '1-bajta) · After the third hemistich of 3\ ,3S.,at at':!, ,~n'!Mat 'I clasped him and would not release him,' we must insert : :"1:::l."nCV"at .,~~, "V:Il~, 'and then I said to him whom I love,' while the last two 2 hemistichs of 3• belong to 8 • 1 6 7 If we combine 3 .... with 8 · we obtain a poem of five stanzas, each stanza consisting of two c•':l'lt'~ 2:1 with three beats in each hemistich. This poem may be translated as follows : 0M:SIA VINCIT A~IOR. a 1 At night, as I lay on my pillow, for him whom I love I was longing.' I 1 I I longed for him but did not find him o1git1zed by Goog le HAUPT : DIFFICULT PASSAGES IN THE SONG OF SONGS. 59 2 "I will rise and fare forth through the city, both through streets that are wide and are narrow." • 3 I met men • faring forth through the city: " Have ye seen my beloved?" (I asked them). 4 But scarce had I gone a step further when before me stood my beloved ! I clasped him and would not release him, and then I said to my beloved: 8 6 Hang me (close) to thy heart, like a signet,• on thy band, like a ring, do thou wear me; II For Love as Death is strong,n and Passion as Sheol unyielding." Its ftames are tl ftames of fire, its flashes aret2 flashes of lightning." 7 Nothing A is able to quench it,~' neither can any streams drown it. If one • should resign for it f all his possessions, could any man therefore despise him? The Hebrew text must be restored as follows : • "!:~ ;,::..,acvnac 'm'j'l):l ,,~;~.r;,: •::w ':lu a ' M,:li'l;;, Cj.l~vl:l '1'U:l ;o,:l:l,C~ IC~i'le,i'IC 2 : CM'IM "':m ;,::..,acvnac '1'U:l c·::b;, • .,,ac= 3 "''t'm ;,::.'1lCVnac •nac=v-,u C:"TC •n-,:uv;o CUC::l 4 ;"':m ;,::..,acv~;~ac -,~;~at~ ,~ll..,IC ac':J, ,.MlMIC -wn ':Ju cn,n:~ ,~':J-',p en,, '0 ·;~oov: 8 6 ;,ac"' ':J,acvr.i :"lt'i' ;,::"lac ,,~::~ :-mr:l ; 1!1" ro:"I':IV? ::rn::.~ 'e'IC 'll'e"1 :,"ll'e"1 7 :T~CilV ac':l ,,..,:"'!,, " ~~;':~ ,~;~::~,. ac':l A ' n':J m:• 1i:l f ,n•: 1\~::r'MIC •JM--ciiC I 2 ' I long for him whom I love, I longed for him but did not find him 3 • the watchmen 8 7 A much water "love f for love ,.,ac ac':J, ,.n'e'j'!l:' a 1 1'nac= ~ ,.n'e'j':l ~ ;,::..,acvnac :"lt'i';at' z C""1tlit.'!" 3 o1git1zed by Goog le 6o JOURNAL OF BIBUCAL UTERATURE. In the Authorized Version the last line is translated, If a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would be utterly contemned; but the last hemistich, ,, ,,::l~ 7i:ll, is interrogative. In the same way we must translate Prov. 600 not, Men do not despise a thief, if he steal to satisfy his soul when he is hungry, as it is rendered in the Authorized Version, but, Do not people despise a thief, even if he steal to satisfy his hunger? 44 In the second chapter of the Song of Songs the lines addressed by the bride to the bridegroom on the morrow of the wedding are interrupted by two different songs, the first describing Springtide of Love, the second being v.1a: Catch us the foxes, the little foxes, Destroying vineyards, our vineyards blooming.46 This passage is a quotation illustrating the meaning of ' vineyard ' at 6 11 12 the end of 1 ( cf. also 8 · ). The foxes are the young men, and the vineyards of the maidens are their virgin charms. Verse Ja consists of four hemistichs, each of which has but two beats, not three as in the majority of the half-lines in the Song of Songs. We find the same meter in some of the hemistichs of the preced 14 ing song, Cant. 2"- , which I have called Springtide of Love. This consists of three stanzas; the first and the second are composed of five double-lines, while the last stanza has but three double-lines. In the first stanza each half-line has two beats; in the second stanza, on the other hand, we find three beats in each half-line, except in the last line of the second stanza, which has but two beats just as the identical line at the end of the first stanza. In the last stanza we have again but two beats in each half-line.46 In the same way we find two beats in the hemistichs of the final stanza of the second description of the charms of the bride ( cf. note 34, second para graph) in 416o, At the end of v.12 the insertion of the words K::l c,c;, 'the swallow 47 is come back' is required before ,llr'IK::l 'in our land.' 46 The turtle and the swallow are praised for the regularity of their migratory movements in Jer. 8': the turtle and the swallow observe the time of their coming, they are attached to the land and return in o1git1zed by Goog le HAUPT: DIFFICULT PASSAGES IN THE SONG OF SONGS. 61 the spring, but Israel is unfaithful and does not return to Yahweh.- 1C~'It'~ nat ,n' M" ~~~ nltcZ n' MM ,.,~'It' (.,~,) C,C, .,i"l, m~. The song in Cant. 2~ 14 may be translated as follows: SPRINGTIDE OF LovE.ft I 8 Hark! darling mine ! behold, be is coming, Over mountains leaping,60 over hillocks s~ipping. 0 9 Behold, he stands there behind our wall (bid). From windows I peer down, through lattices 6~ peeping, 10 .. Arise, my dear one! ab, come, my fair one ! 11 For, look you, past is the winter, and rains63 no longer are falling; 12 The ground is covered with flowers, the birds fill the air with warbling; H We hear the cooing of turtles,M to our home is come back the swallow; 13 Th~ fruit 66 on figtrees is ripening, and fragrance exhales from the Pgrapevines.6T Arise, my dear one ! ah, come, my fair one! 14 1\fy dove 68 in the rock·cleft,6t in the cliff's recesses! 6e Thy face show me! thy voice grant me! " For sweet thy voice, and fair thy face. The Hebrew text of this song must be restored as follows: ac~ ;,r.u,., ,,., r,,i' ll 8 o : n,p:u.,-',u l"llj:1~ c~.,;,-r,p lr,..,~ ll 9 ° My darling is like a gazelle or a young hart 61 10 "" My darling began to speak and said to me 13 P blossoming [grant me ! 8 13 "0 thou dwelling in the gardens (companions listming), thy voice c.r,•ac;, .,llb', ,K ·~:b ...,., ;,c,., o t 9 Digitized by Goog le 62 JOURNAL OF BIBUCAL LITERAlVRE. ,,.,z:'l~ "1MM -,cp m":'!J."t I 9 : cr~ eo J'"¥aC n,;,~ eo M")A : ~~.,, •nil• "MV'I ~'"'C1i' • 10 : ,.,.,.,!'1 ')"M C~l"t "''P 81 1~~!'1 !'13.~ II VJ."t .,.1:11!'1 MP y-tiC!l 11C., 82 C.,~., 12 : 1)lMIC!l IC!l CIC!'1 PC~ .,1M!'1 "1i'1 M"! 1)N P C.,ll):-11 :;r"Jil !'11/:))M ea :"I)ICJ::l,"t 13 : ~~.,, •nil• "MV'I ~'"'C,i' !'1)!"'!C."t "1MQ!l p~;o,--1)M!l "N1" 14 ";';!1i'·nac ")"VI!)m Tlf"'l!)·nac .,.IC"\., : eo !'111() ';"l_f"'l!)1 !l~ ,.,,i' ":1 The Song of Songs has often been said to be the most difficult book of the Old Testament, but the meaning becomes perfectly plain, in fact too plain, as soon as you know that it is not an allegori cal dramatic poem, but a collection of popular· Jove-ditties 67 which must be interpreted in the light of the erotic imagery of the Talmud and modern Palestinian 811 and other Mohammedan 09 erotic poetry!0 NOTES. ( 1) See On'tntal Stu diu. A Selection of Papers read before the Oriental Club of Philadelphia, 1888-1894 (Boston, Ginn & Co., 1894), p. 244· Cf. Siegfried's review in the Tluol. Lill"ralur ailung, vol. xx. P· 513 (28 Sept. I89S)· ( 2) See Ernest Renan, L' Ecdesias/( lraduil d( rHibrl"U avu Un( Etude sur fagl" ctle characurl" du livrl" (Paris, t88z), pp. 1, 67, 41; cf. C. H. H. Wright, The Book of Kohdtth (London, 1883), p. 126. (3) Hiob, nach Georg Hoffmann (Kiel, x891), p. 25. (4) Gustav Bickell, Dcr Prl"digl"r iiber den Wl"rlh dl"s Dauins ( lnnsbruck, 1884), p. 3· (S) My theory that there are several strata of glosses in Ecclesias tes (which I advanced more than ten years ago in the Johns Hopkins Uniz•(rsity Circulars, June, 1891, p. us•) has been adopted by M .,.,lfC P I 13 .&, "11'.)1(1 ..,., !'1)p • 10 16: ~1!)1:!'1 #i'" (C"!l"i'l!) C""1;M) l:rl)!l M!l~!'1" 8 13 ---o1git1zed by Goog le HAUPT; DIFFICULT PASSAGES IN THE SONG OF SONGS. 63 Siegfried in his commentary on Ecclesiastes and th• Song of Songs (Gottingen, I898). Contrast Laue, Das Budz Koluktk und di~ ln«rpolalionsk;potlust Si~gfri~d's (Wittenberg, I900). ( 6) See this JOURNAL, vol. xx, p. ii, and cf. the critical notes on the Hebrew text of Proverbs, in The Polychrome Bible, p. 62, I. 6 ; p. 70, 1. I 5 and the cross-references there cited. Contrast Professor Toy's remarks in his Commmlary on Prov~rbs (New York, I899), p. xxxi, § 7, on the absence in Proverbs of changes made in the interest of theological opinion. (7) Cf. Albert Hagen, Di~ uxudk Osplmsiologi~ (Charlotten burg, I901), p. so. (8) Cf. Gustav Jager, Entdukung da Suk, vol. i. (Leipzig, 1884), p. 135· ( 9) Cf. the instructive comparative tables in Ed. Reuss' German translation of the Old Testament, vol. v. (Braunschweig, 1893), pp. 326-343, giving, in parallel columns, six different dramatic re constructions of the Song of Songs. (to) Talmudic J~::llt',lt' which seems to be a Shaf'el of ::llt'\ Hif. ::l~lt',:-1 'to marry' (Ethiop. ar~saba). A connection with Assyr. susabinu (Delitzsch, HW. so6•) seems very improbable; con trast Brockelmann, s.v. Ml~::llt',lt'. (11) Cf. Gen. 29'~~ Jud. I412 Tob. nlll (contrast Tob. 819 Io7) and Wetzstein's remarks quoted in Delitzsch's commentary on the Song of Songs (Leipzig, I875), p. 166; Budde's commentary (Frei burg, 1898), pp. xvii and IS; Siegfried's commentary (Gottingen, I898), p. 87, also Driver's lntrodufli'on 7 (New York, I898), p. 452. The importance of Wetzstein's theory was emphasized in K. Kohler's Das Hok~ Li~d (Chicago, I878), p. 9, and in B. Stade's Gudlifhl~ lsra~rs, vol. ii. (Berlin, t888), p. I971 n. t. Contrast Dalman's remarks cited at the end of note 53· (12) So, correctly, G. Fr. W. Lippert, Sulamitk (NUrnberg, t855}, p. I9, n. ••; cf. Budde ad /Q(. and .,p:il:-r-1~ C"Tr m.,l-:'1::l" 18 c~::l.,~# ;,ct,~ru. Prov. 7 • Lit. 'until the day blows.' The sea breeze begins to blow in Palestine shortly after daybreak; the land breeze, a few hours after sunset. ( IJ) This has an erotic meaning like Latin sa/ire (jump, buck, 1 etc.), Greek l.,.&8opvva8ru. The term ' bolt ' in 8 • must be explained in the same way; cf. Exod. 36&'1 and my remarks on .,~! ' infix,' 1 Eccl. 12 , in my paper cited in note 1, p. 261. Note also Aram. Mm::l 'he-goat, buck.' Fleischer's Persian etymology, given in Levy, i. 288•, is unsatisfactory. o1git1zed by Goog le JOURNAL OF BIBUCAL UTERAroRE. ( 14) This ancient practice was derived from Babylonia; see the full-page illustration facing p. 696 of Hommel's Geschidzk Babylonitns und Assyriens (Berlin, 1885) ; cf. Mtirdter-Delitzsch's Gesdzidzte Babyloniens und Assyriens 1 (Calw, 1891), p. 139, and fig. 188 in G. Maspero's Life in Ancient Egypt and Assyria (London, 1892). On this marble relief from Kouyunjik we see King Sardanapalus reclining on a dining-couch while the queen is seated on a chair at the foot of the royal couch. In the same way the Romans took their meals in an accumbent posture, but women and children sat at the table, even the imperial princes. Tacitus (Ann. xiii. 16) says, Mos habtbalur principum liberos cum ceteris ~·dem aetatis nobrlibus setknles vesd in asputu propinquorum propria et parciore mmsa ,· cf. also Sueton., Aug. 64; Claud. 32. Accubation was introduced in Rome after the first Punic War (264-241 B.c.). In Greece accu· bation was unknown at the time of the Homeric poems ( cf. Od. i. 145 U«lf1'i ~OYTo ICaTa "N.o-p.o\1<; T« 6poVfW'i T«, xv. 134 i{iu8'1" o il.p' l11'«LTa KaTa ">..urp.o\1<; T« 6pavOV'i T«), but afterwards the Greeks and Romans adopted this Oriental fashion and lay very nearly flat on their breasts while taking their meals, or in a semi-sitting posture supported on the left elbow. - Among the Jews this custom did not obtain before the Grreco Roman period ; the ancient Israelites sat at the table ("' C'::l~' JM"V:;,, see critical notes on 1 K. I 3'1JJ in the Polychrome Bible), either on chairs or on the floor; cf. fig. 39 in Benzinger's Hcb. ArchtZol., representing some Arabs squatting around a table. It is, however, entirely unnecessary to emend ::lCl in 1 S. I611 to ::lV:); nor need we point ::l1;11 instead of ::lCl. Cf: the Talmudic passage Ber. fol. 42• below (quoted by Levy s.v. ::ll;l:j) : ,rnt ";:, J'::lV:,• ,.;, J",~ ,.,~ ~ ,::lQ;, ,~n" ,.,::l~, when they sit (at the table) each one says grace for himself, but when they recline (at the table) one says grace for all. At that time ::ll;lt'l had the special meaning 'to recline at a meal,' but originally it meant simply 'to surround the table,' either sitting or squatting or standing or reclining. The restriction of ::lQ;, to accubation is a secondary specialization. ( 15) Spikenard ( tmguentum or oleum nardinum) was a very costly 3 3 perfumed unguent (Mark I4 John 12 ) generally believed to have been obtained from the root of a plant (Nardostach)'S Jatamansi), closely allied to the valerian, which is found in the Himalayan region. Cf. Sir William Jones' paper" On the Spikenard of the Ancients" in Asiatic Researches, vol. ii. (Calcutta, I 790), pp. 405-4 t 7 ; Lagarde, Afitthrtlungen, vol. ii. (Gottingen, 1887), p. 26. The odor is said to o1git1zed by Goog le HAUPT: DIFFICULT PASSAGES IN TiiE SONG OF SONGS. 6S resemble that of a combination of valerian and patchouli. Pliny xii. 42 says, however, that the Syrian spikenard (i.e., perhaps Vaknana sambudfolia) was most highly valued (in nostro orbe proxime lauda lur nardum Synizcum). Cf. Hor. Carm. ii. 1113-17 Cur "fn Sflb alta v~l plala!fo v~lllae Pinu jaunt~s sic tmur~ ~~ rosa Canos odorati enpillos, Dum liut, Assyriaqu~ nardo Potat11fiS uncti 1- 119 and nardo perunclus, Hor., Epod. 5 • (16) Lit., with what didst thou stay (thy stomach) to-day? We must rememb!;r that the Jewish day is reckoned from sunset to sunset. (17) In Lazarus Goldschmidt's edition (Derbabylotzisdze Talmud, vol. i., Berlin, 1897, p. 464) these terms are incorrectly rendered • bread of bolted flour' and 'bread of unbolted flour.' The word ;,~,~~-, has no connection with iJ.p.v>..ov, as Levy s.v. supposes ( cf. also Samuel Krauss, Gn"edz. und lat. Lehnworler im Talmud, etc., Part ii., Berlin, 1899, p. 416), but is the fern. pass. part. of "~' • to work'; see Marcus Jastrow's Dictionary s.v. (I 8} An instructive parallel is Is. 40st, which is a misplaced illus trative quotation belonging to v. 7 of that chapter. See my transla tion of Is. 40 in Drugulin's Marksleine (Leipzig, 1902). Cf. also below, notes 25, 37, 65. For illustrative quotations in the Book of Ecclesiastes, see my remarks in Johns Hopkins University Circulars, No. 90 (June, t891), p. us", note t. ( 19) cr. our term sub rosa 'under the rose' = privately, in allu sion to the ancient practice at banquets, etc., of hanging up a rose as the symbol of silence and secrecy, or the legal term sub has/a 'under the spear' = at public auction, as the Romans planted a spear as symbolum imptni" on the spot where a public sale was to take place. The term 'under the apple' was no doubt just as clear as our 'below the salt' = among the inferior guests, the principal salt cellar being placed near the middle of the table. (2o) Cf. also Shakespeare's Henry VIII., act iii, scene 2, 1. 295 : I'll startle you worse than the sacring bell when the brown wench lay kissing in your arms, lord cardinal. In Hugo Grotius' Annola liones in Vetus Testamentum (ed. Vogel, vol. i., Halle, 1775, p: 453) the phrase ,~M.,.,,, m~M:"T nnn is interpreted to mean Sub arbort o1git1zed by Goog le .. 66 JOURNAL OF BIBUCAL UTERATURE. malo nudavi le (i.e., devirginavi). Malum quid inldligal, non ob . scurum ex 2" 5. ( 21) He who eats of the forbidden fruit loses his childlike inno cence, his eyes are opened; so Adam and Eve perceived that they were naked. Not to know good and evil, i.e., what is wholesome and what is injurious, means, in Hebrew, to be like a child. Barzillai of Gilead answered David, when the king asked him to follow him to Jerusalem, I am this day four score years old and can no longer discern between good and evil (2 S. 19311), i.e., my intellect is im paired by old age, I have become again like a child, I am in my second childhood. This explanation of original sin is given by the celebrated English philosopher Thomas Hobbes in his Leviathan (London, 1651 ), and it may be traced back to Clement of Alexandria in tqe second cen tury A.D. (cf. Tuch's Commenlar iiber die Genesis/ Halle, 1871, p. 45 ; Diestel, Geschichle des Allen Testaments in dtr chrisllidten Kirche, Jena, 1869, p. 493). It has been advocated also by Scho penhauer. The great German pessimist says that the Story of the Fall of Man contains the only metaphysical truth found in the Old Testament, it is the Glanzpunkl des Judmlhums, but he says, it is an hors d'o:uvre: the pessimistic tendency of the legend has no echo in the Old Testament, which, on the whole, is optimistic, while the New Dispensation is pessimistic, i.e., of course, so far as this world is concerned. (22) Cf. my remarks in the critical notes on the Hebrew text of Proverbs, in the Polychrome Bible, p. 32, 1. 31, and contrast Ed. Sievers' transliteration of the Hebrew text of the Song of Songs in his Studien zur hebraischen Meln'k (Leipzig, 1901 ), pp. 538-551. A reconstruction of the metrical form without the necessary textual emendations, transpositions, and eliminations is impossible; on the other hand, the restoration of the text cannot be accomplished with out due regard to the metrical form. ( 23) That is, our union will be full of life and vigor, it will afford 1 us fresh pleasure for a long time to come. Cf. Ps. 92 ' and our phrase ' his memory will be kept green,' or Mephistopheles' lines in the Schiilerscene of Goethe's Faust:- Grau, lhe11rer Freund, is/ alit Theon't, und griin des ubens goldner Baum, also Brahms' song (words by F. S.) Meine Liebe isl griin. ( 24) Their humble cottage seems to them like a magnificent palace. The Q•re m~~0'J 'our paneling,' i.e., the panels of the walls and of the ceiling (LXX, f/»Tvwf14Ta.; Vulg., laqruan'a) of our house, Digitized by Goog le HAUPl': DIFFICULT PASSAGES IN THE SONG OF SONGS. 67 seems to be correct. It is not neces.c;ary to read, with Wetzstein, UfP~tT1 'and our wall,' or ,"79~"1 'and its walls,' but the rhythm would be improved by inserting ";:,, before mo~m. In the gloss appended 8 to 7 , C"ff:"M:l .,,cat,,~' a king ( cf. note 28) captured ( cf. Cant. 411) by ringlets,' this stem refers to the ringlets of the hair of the bride, just as laquean·a is connected with laqueus, 'cord, snare, fetter.' (25) Lit., the bouse of wine, i.e., the bridal chamber; cf. 14 and 51 : Eat, friends, drink, and let us be intoxicated with love. This is an illustrative quotation ( cf. note 18) from a poem describing a sym posium with hetrerre, etc. (26) He kissedandcaressedme. Cf. Dalman,op.cit.,p.277,l. u. 11 ( 2 7) This is inserted by mistake from 5 : If ye find my darling, tell him that I am sick with love. (28) The bridegroom; cf. note 11. Jews in Russia and Palestine still call the bridegroom • King.' (29) Lit., was in his accubation, on his dining-couch; cf. note 14. (30) He was as close to me as the sadul placed between the breasts at night, to perfume the bosom, and he was so sweet that I needed no other perfume. Cf. Dalman, op. cit., p. 91, 1. 4 ; p. 260, 1. 14. (31) Henna is the so-called Flower of Paradise or Egyptian privet, known in the West Indies as Jamaica mignonette (Lawsonia i11tr· mis), a shrub bearing numerous small and fragrant white flowers crowded in fascicles or short axillary corymbs. It is described by Tristram as still growing on the shores of the Dead Sea at En-gedi. The Orientals are extremely fond of the odor of the henna flowers. Mohammed called them the chief flower of this world and the next. The leaves of the henna-plant impart a reddish-orange color, and the women in the East· use henna to stain their finger nails and finger tips. They also put sprigs of henna in their hair. Cf. Dalman, op. cit., p. 21, No.3; p. 151. No. I; p. 291, 1. 17; p. 314, No.3· (32) For En-gedi see the notes on the English translation of Ezekiel, in the Polychrome Bible (New York, 1899), p. 202, 1. 2. It is the most charming spot on the western shore of the Dead Sea, an oasis ofluxuriant vegetation in a desolate wilderness. Pliny, v. 17, calls it Engada, oppidum secundum ab Hierosolpnis ferlilitale palmelo rumque ne111oribus. (33) That is, thy name is to me the sweetest thing on earth; lit., oil that has been decanted, poured from one vessel into another 11 to clear it of all sediments. Cf. Jer. 48 ; Moab has been undis 12 turbed from her youth, she settled on her lees (Zeph. 1 ) and was not decanted from one vessel into another, and did not go into o1git1zed by Goog le 68 JOURNAL OF BIBUCAL LJTERAniRE. captivity; therefore her taste was preserved, and her scent remained unchanged - '"M,, II ,~.,~v"' M,:"' fOj''et'l I ,~,,J~ ~,~ JJM" I ,::l ,~'m ~' J;::) "' II ,.,:"! ,, ~U::l, I ~t,~-"-c ~t,~~ j'.,,:"' : .,~) M" ,,...,,_ Cf. the Shakespearian ' Love's lhrice-repured nectar.' (34) Heb. sMshannlm. This is neither a white lily nor a scarlet lily. Lilium candidum and !ilium Chalcedonicum are not found in 13 Palestine. Cant. 5 , his lips are sMshannlm, means, his mustache is like dark-purple lilies; in the same way ,~~rr,, at the beginning of that verse, refers to the beard (Arab. ll'lfie); cf. Dr. Hagen's book, cited in note 7, p. 7I, and Dalman, op. cit., p. 305, No. 2; p. 3I9, No.3; p. 333, last stanza; p. 243, l. 3· Heb. sMshanndh denotes a dark purple sword-lily (gladiolus alrovio/aceus, Boiss.). Wetz stein states in his ReisdJerichl uber Hauran und die Trachonen (Leipzig, I86o), p. 40, that Arabic susan is the name of a large and beautiful dark-purple lily; he found thousands of these flowers on the vast plain southeast of the Hauranitic mountains. Fleischer, Kkinere Schriften, vol. ii. (Leipzig, I888), p. 317, quotes a line from el-Makkari's Anakctes sur /'hisloire ella littirature tks Arabes d'Espagne, edited by R. Dozy, G. Dugat, L. Krehl, and W. Wright, vol. ii. (Leyden, I86t), p. 397, in which the first down shading the face of an Arab youth is compared to susan flowers ( cf. Lagarde, Mittheilungen, vol. ii., p. 20 ). 3 In the same way we read Cant. 7 , in the description of the charms of the bride sung on the wedding-day : thy pudendum is a closed (for .,:"10:"1 cf. .,:"'i:m n~::l 'prison') bowl, may the mixed drink 18 (the seed of copulation, Lev. IS ) not be wanting; thy mons is a heap of wheat fringed with sh"shannlm, or· dark purple flowers, i.e., the hair of the genitals. Thoma, Ein Rill in's gelobte Land (Berlin, I887), p. 40 (quoted in Stickel, Das Hohdied, Berlin, I888, p. I84), states that it is still customary to put lilies or anemones around heaps of grains of wheat in order to scare off birds. According to Wetzstein in Delitzsch's commentary on the Song of Songs, p. I 77, the color of wheat (Arab. Mn-d-~in(e) is considered in Syria to be the m,ost beautiful hue of the human skin. Cf. Dalman, op. cit., p. 12, No. I. Cant. 73 is alluded to in the erotic poem of Samuel ibn-Nagdila (993-IOSS A.D.) translated by Lagarde in vol. iii. of his Mittheilungen, p. 33· A girl who pronounces the ., as a guttural r (with the Northumbrian bur, like the German or French r, or the r in the Arabic dialect of Bagdad; see Journal of tl~e A mer. On.enl. Soc., - o1git1zed by Goog le HAUPT : DIFFICULT PASSAGES IN THE SONG OF SONGS. 69 vol. xxii., p. 98, n. 2, and cf. Henry Sweet, A Prim~r of Plwnitics, Oxford, 1890, §§ 21 x, 255, 306), not as a lingual r (like the English r) wants to say to her lover ~ 'wretch,' but she says 'S5 'touch, 6 approach' (cf. Prov. 6-a Gen. 20 ), and when she wants to say :"1.,,0 1 get away,' she says ::t5,C 'fringed,' thus suggesting to her lover the 3 c~l'lt','lt'::l ;omc I what is fringed with dark purple flowers' in Cant 7 • The phrase c~l~'lt'::l :'T'S.,, therefore, cannot be interpreted to mean 'to feast on the lips,' i.~., to press innumerable kisses on the lips of the bride, but it is synonymous with m.,'S M,C,l 'to uncover 61 the nakedness' (Lev. x8 "·) and Homeric 'wY11v Aww Od. xi. 245· In Cant. 4~ c~l'lt','lt'::l c~'S-,:'T is a gloss derived from 2 14, just as the following verse, Cant. 44, "tl, c,~n m!l~'lt' -,. ·cant. 63 is a repetition 1 of 2 ', added to explain the preceding c~l'lt','lt' top""· The first 8 verse of the sixth chapter must be inserted after 5 • For top" c~3'1t','lt' and c~3'1t','lt'::l m.,, cf. Dalman, op. cit., p. 69, No. II, also p. 70, No. 15 ; p. 241, No. 9, last stanza; and for 'wY17V Aw&v, ibid., p. 140, No. 3; p. 235, second stanza. The Greeks called this dark purple sword-lily ;,4Kw8~; cf. Thoocr. 1 5 x. 28 (a striking parallel to Cant. 2 1 ); Odyss. vi. 231 (cf. 'hyacin thine locks,' Milton, Parad. Lost, iv. 301) ; Ovid, M~tam., x. 212. The precious stone which the ancients called 'hyacinth' (Arab. y4qul = Aram. yaqunt4 for waqunt4) was our amethyst, while dp.i6ucrr~ denotes the amethystine sapphire. For c~~~V:-"'S, i.~. perhaps, with Susian instruments, in the title of Ps. 45, etc. (cf. M,~"' "'=with Elamite instruments) see my note in Wellhausen's translation of the Psalms, in the Polychrome Bible (New York, 1898), p. 183, 1. 15. (35) Lit., accumb, recline at the meal (cf. note 14) and be (i.~ .• leap; cf. note 13) like a gazelle. (36) This double-line must be restored on the basis of the variant in 46 given at the bottom of the page. Mountains of myrrh and hillocks of incense, mountains of malabathron, or mountains of spices (8u) are all hyperbolic expressions for the sweet body of the bride, cf. note 7· The Authorized Version has' mountains of Bether' for .,M::l ..-,n, but adds in the margin, Or 1 mountains of division,' i.e_., cleft moun tains. The Revised Version gives in the margin, 'mountains of separation' (Luther, Sdwikberge; cf. Kamphausen in Bunsen's Bibdw~rk, vol. iii., Leipzig, 1868, p. 542; contrast Delitzsch ad loc.) i.e., the mountains that part thee and me. It is possible, however, that .,M::l ...,~ refers to the vulvar orifice just as :'T::lj1l ( cf. 73 and o1git1zed by Goog le JOURNAL OF BIBUCAL LITERA'IURE. note 34), .,;, being the mons Veneris and .,M:::l =rima mulien·s, so that Luther's Sduideberge would be practically correct although he used Sclteide in the sense of ' separation,' and not as equivalent to vagina. In 413 the vagina is called ""'It' 'conduit'; cf. Neh. i 5 and Dalman, op. cit., p. 8, note I ; p. 49, note I; p. 2I3, note 3; p. us, 1 No. 8, also my remarks on ,-,ac::: .,;:,, Eccl. u , cited in note I3· (37) Cf. note I8. It is, of course, possible that the passage was 5 a marginal quotation illustrating the meaning of' apples' in 2 • (38) Seals were worn either as pendants from a cord around the neck (in Gen. 38 18 Judah gives Tamar his seal, his seal-cord, and his staff as a pledge) or as seal-rings on the right hand. In Jer. 22 24 Yahweh says, C,j',,:'r""J:::l) II ,:"!:~~ :"!,:"!, Cac-',:::1 I m~ CKj ,jK ,M II ,lj'r!K C'lt'~ ,:I I ,j,~, .,..-"' CM,M (:TTl~ 1"~· Though (the king of Judah) Coniah (ben-Jehoiakim) be the signet on my right hand, I will tear him off therefrom (i.e., I will give him into the hand of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon) ; and at the end of the Book of Haggai Yahweh says, :"!,:"!, CKj ..-,:::'S "K,M"M'It'-J:::l ":::l::il.,l 1MJ'\C cn,n;:, ,,M~'e"l, I will take my Servant Zerubbabel ben-Shealtiel, and will make thee as a signet, i.e., I will take special care of thee, thou shalt be especiaJly dear to me and under my special protection. So the maiden desires to be just as close to her lover's heart as his seal hanging down from his seal-cord (Set me as a seal upon thy heart= Take me to thy bosom), and just as dear to him as his seal-pendant or his seal-ring on his right hand. ' Keep me as thy seal' has nearly the same meaning as the phrase ' Keep me as 10 8 2 the apple of thine eye' (Deut. 32 Ps. 17 Prov. 7 ). For 'on thy hand like a ring do thou wear me,' cf. also Ps. 91 12 .Matt. 46 and Dalman, op. cit., p. 276, second stanza, p. 206, I. 4· (39) Irresistible. ( 40) Lit., hard. ( 4 I) As hot as. (42) As sudden and unavoidable as.- (43) Lit., flashes of Yahweh. (44) Cf. the critical notes on the Hebrew text of Proverbs, in the Polychrome Bible, p. 39, I. 37· It is, of course, better to read M":"', but it is not absolutely necessary; cf. Gesenius-Kautzsch, §ISO, a. (4S) Foxes are very fond of grapes; cf. the .IEsopian fable (No. 33) of the Fox and the Sour Grapes (pay('> op.c/>aK{,atKTLV p.4M.). Cf. also Aristren. ii. 7 ltiC"O<; op.c/>a.IC~(l 7rO.fX1Tpvywv 1!"at8tCTICtlptOV ICW ToV o1git1zed by Goog le HAUPI' : DIFFICULT PASSAGES IN THE SONG OF SONGS. 7 I (47) The swallow is the harbinger of spring; Aristotle, in his Nicomaduan Ethics, i. 6, quotes the proverb, p.{.a. xe.\18Wv lap oo ra&ei, one swallow does not make spring, or as we usually say, one swallow does not make a summer (German, eine Schwalbe mach/ noch keinen Sommer). In the Fables of ..£sop, No. 304, we read that a prodigal youth squandered everything he had, and when he saw the first swallow return in the spring, he sold even his cloak ( cf. Exod. 13 :z:z~ Deut. 24 }. But frost set in again, so that the swallow died. Cf. Georg BUchmann, Geftugdte Worle'lO (Berlin, 1900), p. 360. (48) The addition of ,,:lt.,M to 'SC'It'j •m.,;, ",i', would make the hemistich too long. Budde is therefore inclined to cancel ,,~M,, and this excision is adopted by Siegfried. Cf. the critical notes on the Hebrew texts of Proverbs, in the Polychrome Bible, p. 54, I. 49; P· s6, I. :z:z. (49) Cf. Uhland's poem (cited by Budde), 0 Winur, schlimmer Winter. (so) Palestine is a mountainous region. Leaping means here simply speeding, moving with celerity, eager to meet me. 17 (51) A gloss derived from :z • (5 :z) The windows were simply small apertures, with wooden grat ings or trellis-work, and high above the ground. The maiden did not open the window, but looked through the lattice, while her lover could not see her; cf. the last lines of the Song of Deborah in Jud. 5 6 and Prov. 7 • Even at the present day the g_round-fioor windows opening into the street are small, very high above the ground, and strongly trellised, but panes of glass are gradually coming into use; cf. Baedeker's Paliistina u11d Syn'en ~ (Leipzig, 1900), p. xl. (53) Of the winter. There are practically but two seasons ·in Palestine, summer and winter. The latter is the rainy season, but relatively warm; the summer is hot and dry. There is no rain in 2 summer, only profuse dew after nightfall (Cant. 5 ). The spring is very brief, from the middle of March to the middle of May. From the beginning of May· to the end of October the sky is cloudless ; cf Baedeker's Pa/iistina ~. p. xlv. The Hebrew word for winter ( sctdw) is in the Arabic dialect of Morocco the common expression for rain (cf. Beitrage zur Assyn'o/ogr'e, etc., edited by Delitzsch and Haupt, vol. iii., Leipzig, 1898, p. 578, 1. :z); so also in Jerusalem (.~ittl). The majority of the larger weddings in the neighborhood of Damascus ( cf. Cant. 7~ and Winckler, Altorienl. Forschungen, first series, whole number, iii, Leipzig, 1895• p. 295) take place during March, the most beautiful month of the year ; they are celebrated on the thresh- Digitized by Goog le JOURNAL OF BIBUCAL LITERA11JRE, ing-floor of the village, which is at that time a flowery meadow. Con trast Dalman, op. cit., p. xii and p. vii, n. t. (54) Lit., the time of the singing (of birds) is come (so AV); 12 cf. Ps. 104 • Some commentators translate, The time of pruning (the vineyards) has come, but according to v. 13 the vineyards are in bloom ; the pruning must be done before the vines begin to blossom ; so Delitzsch and Reuss ; contrast Budde and Siegfried ad loc. (55) The turtle is the symbol of tender affection; cf. our phrases ' to bill and coo ' or ' to join bills or beaks ' and the German lebm wie die Turtdtauben. The He b. name /Jr (for tur: cf. Latin tur tur) is imitative of the cooing of a dove. (56) Heb. pagglm, i.e. the winter-figs (ltal. cratiri) which have been on the tree during the winter. Bethphage (near Mount Olivet, on a small hill on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho) means House of Winter-figs. The early figs (Ital. gnmt~ Heb. bikkurlm) ripen in June, the others (!tal. forniti, Heb. fi'enlm or rather tcnlm: see below, note 63) begin to mature in August; but many of them are not ripe when the leaves begin to fall in November, and they begin 82 then to ripen early in the spring ( cf. Matt. 24 ). As a rule, there are some figs on the tree throughout the year, and it is an exception to find a fig-tree without fruit. This explains the legend in Matt. :zi 18 according to which Jesus, while returning one morning from Bethany to Jerusalem, felt hungry: he came to a fig-tree but found nothing thereon but leaves, whereupon he cursed the tree, saying, Let no fruit grow on thee forever! Cf. Benzinger, Reb. Arch. p. 34, and his remarks in Herzog-Hauck's Realencyklopiidit:', vol. vi. ( Leip zig, I 899), p. 304 ; Cheyne-Black's Enqclopadia Biblica, col. I 5 :z I ; see also the notes on the English translation of Ezekiel, in the Poly chrome Bible (New York, 1899), p. t8I, 11. 47 ff. (57) The inflorescence of certain varieties of vitis 'l!inifera is often very fragrant. The American riverside grape, 'l'itis npan'a (which has of late years been extensively introduced into the vineyards of Europe, especially in France, owing to its power of resisting the attacks of the grape-louse), is called also 1•itis odorahssima. The odor of its greenish-yellow blossoms resembles that of reseda. (58) Rock-doves are very common in Palestine, especially the ash-rumped variety known as C(J/ttmba Sclzimpen', which nests in 28 crevices and fissures of the chalk precipices; cf. Jer. 48 • See also Dalman, op. cit., p. 6, No.5· (59) In the recesses of the stone house, behind the front wall of the house; cf. the remarks in n. 5 :z on the windows in Palestinian houses. o1git1zed by Goog le HAUPT: DIFFICULT PASSAGES IN THE SONG OF SONGS. 73 (6o) We must read, with Budde, the first person of the imp£ instead of the participles ~~W~ and Y'~ of the Received Text; contrast Siegfried ad /oc. ( 61) ,1;11? is an incorrect spelling. We must write ,J:I~ ; so, too, 2 ~~~ 'dew-drops' instead of ~c~c., Cant. 5 , .,~'W 'storm' instead of .,:;c, lMltt (s~n = Adn; cf. note 63) 'shoe' instead of liMt;:i, etc. ( 62) For the plural form c~~~ instead of c~~. cf. Haupt, The Assyrian E-vowe/ (Baltimore, 1887), p. S· (63) The Masoretic punctuation m~z;1 (cf. nttt~ Cant. 311 for ntac~) is incorrect; the word should be pronounced ntMl:.!; cf. criti cal notes on the Hebrew text of Ezra-Nehemiah in the Polychrome Bible, p. 71, I. 19. ( 64) Cf. for this word A. Merx, Die Saadjanisdu Uebersetzung des Bohen Lides.in's Arabische (Heidelberg, 1882), pp. s-8. (65) This is a misplaced illustrative quotation (cf. note x8) ap pended at the end of the book like the following verse, sa, which 17 13 14 is a variant to 2 • The verse 8 is appended to 2 in Kohler's trans lation cited above, in note II. The words c~::~wi'~ c~.,~n are an incorrect gloss interpreting the preceding n::w,~n as collective ; cf. Gesenius-Kautzsch, § 123, s. (66) The stem n,M.l is not a Pi'lel, but is originally a Nifal of :'TIM 'to desire,' so that n,M.l = ,~M) desirable; cf. Gesenius-Buhl'3 s.v. ( 67) It is a mistake to suppose that all the songs in Canticles are nuptial poems; some of them undoubtedly refer to wedding cere 11 monies, especially 3G- , but others are merely popular love-songs which may, however, have been sung occasionally at wedding festi vals, although they were originally not written for that purpose. Cf. Dalman, op. cit., p. 109, p. 188, note 3· (68) Cf. Dalman, op. cit., especially p. xii. It might be well to add that the references to Dalman's book were added after the present paper was in type. It is a pity that Dalman did not number the lines of his songs and provide his book with an index. (69) Cf. also W. Max MUller, Die Litbtspoesie dtr allen A'gjpkr, Leipzig, 1899; A. Erman, Lift in Ancient Egypt (London, 1894), pp. 387-389. ( 70) A rhythmical translation of the whole Book of Canticles, with explanatory notes and restoration of the Hebrew text, etc., will appear in vol. xviii. No.4 (July, 1902) of the American Journal of &milic Languages. o1git1zed by Goog le